‘Noah’ a gothic tale of death, mayhem and the apocalypse

Generally, the story of Noah is told as story of warm fuzzies and God’s promise not to destroy the world through flood again – literally, animals and rainbows are the focus with a helping of a man and his family saving all life on Earth. This is not that movie. The movie starts off as a parable of the agrarian vegetarian versus the urban meat-eaters. Noah’s father is killed by the carnivores despite being the favored son of God, or “the Creator” as he is named in the movie. The world before the flood looks an awful lot like the post-apocalyptic worlds of most science fiction films. Magic rocks and Anthony Hopkins as Methuselah make cameo appearances while the animals are relegated to arrival and sleep throughout the film. The Nephilim, called “the Watchers,” play an important part as Noah faces off against the rest of humanity when the rain starts to fall. It’s good to have Ent-like rocks on your side when you need to construct a large object and fend off a mob. When the Ark lifts off the ground, those aboard include the three sons, Noah, his wife, Il-la, an adopted daughter played by Emma Watson who loves the eldest son Shem, and the king of men, Tubal Cain, who stows away and gets help from Ham played by Logan Lerman. Noah is convinced that God means to destroy all men, and he is intractable to thoughts of mercy even when the screams of the dying inundate the Ark. His dark revelation heralds his descent into the depths of despair, anger and crazy. Did this take 40 days or 40 weeks, in the scheme of things, it probably doesn’t much matter. What is this movie, exactly? It is an apocalyptic, psychological, sci-fi, gothic love tale of horror and redemption with redeeming story values of justice and mercy. While Noah isn’t necessarily a good time, it is an interesting one.